Coconut Cream Pie, not Cow Pie

I looked all over for a good Coconut Cream pie. Coconut got a bad rap in the West right around the time Corporate Canola was pushing its way into our bloodstream and fat cells.

However, my search always turned up "coconut cream" pies laced with Mr. Cow: milk, cream, whipped cream, frozen whipped cream, half and half, not to mention the death duet, white sugar and white flour, and a teensy- weensy bit of coconut flakes, toasted (and, therefore ruined from a health point of view). Sheesh, I wanted "coconut" cream pie not "cow" cream pie.

Someone asked a friend of mine (one of our success stories) how on earth he lost all that weight - at his age - after being overweight all his adult life. They heard the word "coconut" as a seasonal and balanced part of his answer. "No, No, NO!", she retorted. "We can't have that, you poor thing, coconut is so baaaa-d for you", so proclaimed the pasty-skinned, always unhealthy looking lady to the now slim, trim healthy man, whose blood-test results rocks for the first time in his life.

Why, even "modern medicine", whatever that is, now extols the virtues of Mr. Coconut as having remarkable, nay, magical properties. Well of course, only when the coconut is blessed by corporate medicine can it be allowed to have wundebar properties, we can't have a bunch of dirty "ig-nant" natives adding to humanity's wisdom store now, can we!

So here it is, a real Coconut Cream pie with real Coconut Cream topping - one that won't puddle when brought to room temperatures - topping that is to LIVE for! A nod to the sacred cow here and there, but just a nod...

Ingredients:
2 cups coconut cream
1 cup coconut milk
2 cups coconut flakes
(why, this must be a coconut pie).
1/3 cup coconut flour OK if you can't find that, use corn starch.
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, right, it won't look like a white cow pie either
1 Tbl coconut oil (which will be solid if you're keeping it right) or a nod to Mr. Cow, butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Lime juice
Cardamom

For topping
1 cup coconut cream
1 Tb vegetarian gelatin substitute - corn starch, or arrowroot works best. This could also be agar-agar (powder or flakes from a sea vegetable), guar gum (from the seed of the East Indian guar plant). Note, guar has about 8 times the thickening power of corn starch so be careful! There's also xanthan gum (a corn extract), kudzu (a remarkable powder from tuber of the kudzu root). If you are cooking to win food fashion shows, hie thee hence. Chose the powder to meet the requirements of your health balancing act.
1 tsp coconut extract
1/2 cup coconut flakes toasted and cooled

Do you need help with the process? Hang on...

[Update: Good grief! It's been over a year and I haven't got around to "cleaning up" and "polishing" this XYZ work in progress. Be patient, I shall return soon to my "kitchen factory" and post all the unfinished posts. Including the taste balancing parts, the whole reason for this in hte first place.]